Through The Eyes of the Wolf
by JessieJay13
Summary: This is Jacob's story as he begins a new life in Florida after he ran away at the end of Eclipse. Here he meets--and imprints--on a girl who has no idea that his world exists, and doesn't seem intent on believing it anytime soon. JacobXOC


Jacob was still running. It felt as if he had been running for weeks, and he probably had. He was panting and sweating, his fur holding in all the heat the sun threw down at him. He could hear the other werewolves' thoughts ricocheting around his head, calling to him, asking why he had run away, trying to convince him to come back to Forks, but he ignored them all. He continued to weave in between trees and jump rocks and streams, sticking to the shade for the most part to avoid the steaming sun.

'_Where am I?'_ he wondered. _'It's got to be further south than I planned, or else it wouldn't be this hot.'_ He slowed down to a light trot, taking deep breaths to slow his rapid heartbeat. Finally he sat down and curled up, ready for a nice long nap. Then a horn blared loudly nearby, and he jumped to his feet, hackles raised and teeth bared.

'_What am I doing?'_ he thought. _'It's just a car. There must be a road close by. I shouldn't let anyone see me like this.'_ He calmed himself down enough so that a large shiver ran through his body, the hair retracted and he shrunk down to a fifth of his size. Soon, he was back to his human self: muscled, tan, extremely tall, shaggy black hair, and black eyes. He pulled his jeans from the string tying them to his leg and pulled them on. He had no shirt or shoes. They were too difficult to carry with him as a wolf, and he couldn't afford to keep buying more. Especially now, seeing as he had no money whatsoever.

Jacob sighed and sat down, putting his head in his hands and massaging his temples. _'Why the hell did I come here?'_ he asked himself, both furious and on the brink of depression. _'Oh, Jacob, don't even try to kid yourself, you know exactly why you came here. To get away from Bella, and the bloodsucker. You love her, you know you do, and she admits that she loves you too. But she also said that she loves Edward Cullen more, and you can't deal with that kind of rejection. But this wasn't the right way to try and cope, was it? Just running away? How stupid was that! You don't even know where you are.'_

His stomach growled loudly, breaking him out of his self-admonishments. He rubbed it, trying to think of some way to get human food without money. He could steal, but that would be wrong. He could beg, but that would be degrading. Finally, he decided to just hunt as a wolf again, no matter how tired he was of eating rabbits and raccoons every night. With another heavy sigh, he stood up and prepared to transform again, but was stopped as he heard voices close by.

"Why on earth did I allow you to drag me out here again?" a female voice groaned, followed by weary-sounding footsteps.

"Because I'm your best friend, and you never do anything but sit on the computer all day," another girl said, sounding much more cheerful. Her footsteps sounded chipper and energetic. "You need some exercise, some sun. Come on! Cheer up. We still have a while before we get back to town, and you have to speed up or it's gonna be dinner time before we do."

The girls came into Jacob's line of sight. One was thin, with milk-chocolate-colored skin, and dark hair and eyes. The other was a bit taller, very pale, with dark brown hair and green eyes. The pale one looked very tired and more than a little annoyed, and the other was practically skipping backwards, grinning at the other girl and giggling happily. The pale girl stopped when she spotted him, and the happy one turned to see what she was looking at.

Jacob felt an immediate gut-wrenching sensation. The pit of his stomach dropped out, his heart leapt up into his throat and blocked his ability to breathe, his already too-high temperature rose a little higher, and his palms began to sweat. _'Am I…'_ he thought, his mind reeling with emotions he had never felt before, _'…IMPRINTING?!'_ He didn't have a chance to figure it out before the cheerful girl began to head toward him, trying to drag the other girl along with her, and failing miserably. Finally, with a roll of her eyes, she let the pale girl hang back and walked right up to him, smiling brightly.

"Hi!" she said happily, waving at him. "I'm Jessica, and this is my best friend, Jessica. Funny, isn't it?" She laughed slightly. "Anyway, what's your name, and what are you doing out here in the woods?" she asked, staring at him avidly. She seemed to be a very energetic person. It was a little annoying.

"I'm, uh, Jacob. Jacob Black," he replied, looking over Jessica's shoulder at the other Jessica. She was looking at him funny, scrutinizing him, it looked like. "I'm not really doing anything. Just sort of wandering around, I guess," he lied. It wouldn't really do to say, "Running away," would it?

"Well, isn't that a coincidence? That's exactly what we're doing!" the first Jessica exclaimed, beaming at him. "You want to walk back to town with us?"

"Uh, exactly what town would that be?" Jacob asked awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. The pale Jessica gave him another funny look.

"Tallahassee, Florida," Jessica #1 informed him. "And it's back in this direction. Where are you from and how did you get here? And why aren't you wearing shoes or a shirt? You know, no restaurants are going to let you in," she said, leading them back the way the pair of them had come. The pale Jessica trailed a few feet behind them as the happy one waited for his answers.

"Well, I'm from Washington State, and I, uh…" Jacob stopped. What could he tell them? He couldn't exactly say that he had run all the way here. That was just too weird. "Uh…got dropped off," he said, not meeting her eyes.

"By who?"

"Um…my, uh, grandparents. I wanted to come to Florida because it's so sunny. In the town I lived in, it rained almost every day, and it gets kind of depressing after a while. I just wanted some sun," he made up.

"So they just dropped you off in the middle of the woods several miles away from town?" the pale Jessica asked skeptically from behind them. Jacob turned to look at her. She had her arms folded over her chest and her brow furrowed over cynical, disbelieving eyes. Jacob met her eyes, and looked away again, quickly, the smallest of blushes showing through his dark tan. Jessica raised an eye brow at him.

"Yeah. They're old, you know? Not too good with directions."

"And what happened to your shirt and shoes?" the first Jessica asked, ignoring this little invented family tidbit.

"It got hot?" Jacob said slowly, wondering if this would fly. "I guess I dropped them; I'm not used to temperatures above 65°."

"Well, then it might take you a while to get used to it here. It hardly ever goes below 65°, except in the dead of winter," the first Jessica said. "But in summer, it can get up to 100°. Around that time, nobody feels like going outside, except for me, I guess."

"I already think it's too hot," the other one grumbled.

"It's only 85° out," the first one said.

"Yeah, and 15° too hot."

"About how long will it take to get back to town?" Jacob interrupted them. He felt they had had this discussion many times already. "And do either of you have a nickname or something, so I can make it clear who I'm referring to?"

"Maybe an hour or so," the pale one said, sounding very grumpy about it. "And you can call me Jess."

"Okay. Jessica, and Jess," Jacob said, pointing to each one. A cell phone rang, and Jess pulled it out of her pocket.

"Hey, mom," she said, sounding a bit annoyed. A pause. "I told you I was going out with OJ…I told you already! We're 'hiking'…In the woods, where else?…In an hour…Yes, I'll walk the dog when I get back…Bye." She hung up and put the phone back in her pocket. The folded her arms again and frowned.

"Is she always this cheerful?" Jacob whispered sarcastically to Jessica.

"I heard that!"

"Sorry," Jacob said quickly.

"It's okay. I know I'm not too pleasant," Jess said, speeding up to walk alongside him. "I don't like being outdoors too much. Heat and humidity, two things very readily available in Florida, make me really testy. I'm a little easier to get along with when I'm indoors."

"A little," Jessica snickered, and Jess shot her a friendly sort of glare.

"Anyway," Jess said, "where are you staying if you just got dropped off? You didn't even know what town you were near, or where it was." Jacob shrugged and continued walking, not really looking at either of them; He had never really been great shakes at lying. Or talking to girls. Or lying to girls.

"I don't know yet," he admitted. That was the truth. He guessed that he would probably transform at night to hunt and sleep in the woods. Jess raised an eyebrow at him again.

"No money, no way of getting food?" Jess asked, sounding unmoved, a little worried. He shrugged again. "Well, you could get a job. And you could probably stay with one of us. And if not, we could at least bring you food until you get enough money to buy your own." Jacob looked at her curiously.

She wasn't looking at him, but ahead of her and sort of down, watching her feet. She had that cool air or someone who knew very well that she wasn't very good at socializing. Her dark hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail with her long sweep bangs only partially pushed behind her ears, though most of them were still hanging down in her face. Her face was slightly flushed, just from the heat, and she seemed to be pacing herself. She was wearing jeans and a loose blue T-shirt that said, "My soul was removed to make room for all this sarcasm", and sneakers.

On his other side, Jessica was looking forward and roving from side to side happily. She had a spring in her step that said she had traced this path before, and had absolutely no problem with being social. Her dark skin showed no sign of heat stress or fatigue, and her hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail and braided to keep it out of the way, with pieces at the front on both sides hanging down in front of her green headband. She was bouncing along happily in a tight white baby-T and green cargo Capri's with fashionably cute tennis shoes.

"Uh, thanks," Jacob said, looking away from them both, down at his own feet. Not because he needed to watch where he was going, but just for the sake of looking away. Girls had never been his strong suit. "But I think I'll be able to cope. I love camping, so I can stay out here. But I wouldn't mind having some real food every once and a while."

"Okay, to each his own," Jess said under her breath. Jessica rolled her eyes.

"Just because your prefer a computer's glow to the light of the sun doesn't mean that sunlight is necessarily all that bad. You're like a freaking vampire," she said. Neither of them noticed Jacob tense up for a second. He sniffed, but didn't catch a scent, and realized that they were probably just kidding around; Vampires couldn't live comfortably in, what with all the sun. "I like it just fine," she added, giving a spin and beginning to skip slightly. Jess ignored her, rolling her eyes. Jacob grinned from one to the other. They seemed to do this sort of thing all the time, and it was a friendly sort of banter that seemed almost routine, like they had been thinking up these wisecracks all night.

"How old are you? And how long are you staying here?" Jess asked, finally looking up at him. Jacob flushed and looked away again.

"I'm, uh, sixteen," he said, surprised at the bashfulness that showed itself even in his voice. "You?"

"Ditto," the two Jessicas said together.

"So how long are you staying here?" Jess repeated, still watching him closely. "You're going to need clothes if you're going to get a job here, or go to school, or function in normal society. I bet you would fit into some of Joe's clothes, you're about the same height. If, that is, he would loan you some. Maybe in exchange for music theory lessons," she mused, turning back to the front.

"Music theory?" Jacob asked, intrigued. She looked up at him and smiled with genuine enthusiasm.

"Yeah. I love music," she said, sounding much more cheerful to have found such a good topic of conversation. "Especially singing. I _love _singing. I also play a bunch of instruments, and I tried composing, but arranging is easier. Mostly, I stick to musical theatre."

"I'm into it, too, but not nearly as much as Broadway Girl over there," Jessica said, jerking her thumb at her friend. "I mean, her myspace name was 'Pre-Broadway' for the longest time! And she tried to start a club in middle school called the FBC, 'Future Broadway Club'. I think she's obsessed," she added confidentially, whispering loudly behind her hand. Jess reached around behind Jacob to push her in the shoulder, but she was smiling nonetheless.

"Cool," Jacob said. "I've never really been too great of a singer myself, but I played a few traditional instruments back on the reservation."

"Reservation?" Jessica asked.

"Yeah. I'm one hundred percent Quileute Indian," he said proudly. "Born and raised in the La Push Quileute Indian Reservation up by Forks, Washington. I tried out some of the traditional instruments, but I never really stuck to anything. But I like listening to music. I've never really heard anything from Broadway, but I'd love to listen to some."

"Great!" Jess said, walking a little more brightly. Jacob smiled widely at her, and she smiled back, making his heart skip a beat.

'_Jacob! Where are you?'_ Quil's voice resounded in his head.

'_Yeah, man, what the hell is your problem?'_ Embry demanded. _'Why the hell did you run away? When are you coming back? You're dad is worried sick, and we want you back. The pack's not complete without you.'_

Jacob ignored them both, sniffing around until he found a raccoon hiding in a bush. He pounced on it, and ate it quickly, then curled up under a tree to sleep.

'_JACOB!'_

'_What?!'_ he thought back angrily. _'I'm in Florida, you should know that. You guys can read my mind and memories, remember?'_

'_That power decreases with distance,'_ Quil informed him. _'You can see everything when you're closer together, but when we're this far away, only immediate thoughts can be transmitted properly. But there is one thing I can see…you imprinted!'_

'_So what if I did? And how can you even tell?'_

'_Because I recognize the emotions, that's how. I imprinted, too. So who is it?'_

'_Some human girl named Jess.'_

'_No more details than that?'_ Embry meddled.

'_No. Now leave me alone.'_

'_Are you coming back?'_ Embry asked, sounding more reserved. Jacob hesitated.

'_No, I'm not. If you guys ever want to come find me, feel free. But only if you're not going to try and get me to come back.'_ The other two murmured goodbyes and left his mind, finally allowing him to drift off to sleep.

An image of Jess floated in his mind and he smiled slightly, his heart lifting up out of his chest and into his throat again. It restricted his throat, making him feel a little lightheaded, but in a good way. He sighed contentedly and noticed, very surprised, that his tail was wagging. _'Wow,'_ he thought, sounding a little self-patronizing, _'I'm like a puppy.'_ But he didn't mind. He felt even warmer than usual, as if his 108° temperature had suddenly risen by a few more degrees, but the sweltering heat didn't bother him as much as it had when he had first gotten there, for some reason. Maybe peace of mind had something to do with it.

Jacob realized that he hadn't thought about Bella for several hours. It was felt odd, after months of brooding and obsessing over her, to have not a single notion of her cross his mind. But he suddenly felt no disappointment, no sorrow, no resentment at all towards her. That hollow ache that had filled his chest for so long--when he had loved Bella so much, known she loved him back, and knowing that she still preferred that filthy bloodsucker to him--was filled with contentment and hope and warmth and happiness, more so than ever before.

Imprinting was definitely the best thing that had ever happened to him.


End file.
